White Man wanted by FBI for sexually abusing young girls turns himself in after 23 years

by Amir Vera

Wayne Arthur Silsbee eluded authorities for 23 years.

He was wanted by the FBI for "multiple incidents of sexual assault" between September 1995 and April 1996 involving girls between 8 and 10 years old.

The FBI said Silsbee knew each of the victims through babysitting for them or taking them to events.

Friday, the now-62-year-old man walked into the Oregon City Police Department and turned himself in, the FBI said.

It is not clear why, after 23 years, Silsbee decided to stop running.

Silsbee faces charges of first degree sodomy, first degree sexual abuse, endangering the welfare of a minor and first degree unlawful sexual penetration, according to a local arrest warrant the FBI said was obtained in Clackamas County, Oregon, near Portland, in July 1996.

The FBI said it obtained a federal arrest warrant charging him with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution that was issued on September 1996.

Silsbee's first court appearance is scheduled for Monday.

Authorities are asking for anyone who has had any contact with Silsbee over the past 23 years to call the Oregon City tip line:

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) — A South Carolina mother already facing a murder charge for abandoning her baby daughter in 1990 is now charged with dumping the body of her infant son nearly a year earlier.

DNA tests determined the two babies had the same mother and father, leading to Thursday's arrest of Brook Graham, Greenville County Sheriff's Lt. Ryan Flood said.

In the latest case, Graham is charged with desecration of human remains and unlawful neglect of a child because the medical examiner in 1989 couldn't determine if the baby was born alive, Flood said Thursday in a statement.

Graham, 53, was charged with murder in the death of the baby girl given the name Julie Valentine after the infant was found dead inside a vacuum cleaner box in a vacant lot in Greenville in February 1990 by a man picking Valentine's Day flowers for his wife, authorities said.

Ten months earlier, girls playing in woods about 5 miles (8 kilometers) away, found the body of a baby boy who appeared to be fully developed inside a trash bag in April 1989, investigators said.

Graham's lawyer did not answer an email seeking comment Friday.

Graham faces up to 10 years in prison on each of the new felony charges involving the baby boy. She faces up to life in prison if convicted of murder in the death of the baby girl.

A tip from The Greenville News led deputies to reopen the baby boy's case, Flood said.

The father of the two babies has not been charged.

The DNA in the infant girl case was compared to DNA samples in family genealogy sites and first led police to the father, Greenville Police Chief Ken Miller said.

The father then helped investigators find Graham, the chief said.

The father hasn't been charged in either case, but investigators for both police agencies say more charges are possible.

Graham has two adult children and investigators said they are reviewing how they were raised as a part of the case.

(DENVER, Co) — A suburban Denver man has been arrested in the unsolved slaying of a soldier in Colorado 32 years ago after DNA evidence was used to create an image of what a suspect might look like, authorities said Friday.

Civilian and Army investigators arrested Michael Whyte of Thornton in the 1987 strangulation death of Darlene Krashoc, 20, a soldier stationed at Fort Carson outside Colorado Springs.

Whyte, 58, was arrested at his home Thursday on suspicion of first-degree murder.

Online jail records did not indicate whether he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

Krashoc's body was found behind a Colorado Springs restaurant on March 17, 1987.

Investigators said she had gone to a nightclub the previous evening with other soldiers from her unit, a maintenance company.

She was last seen leaving the club between midnight and 1 a.m., and police on a routine patrol found her body.

Investigators said they believe her body had been moved to a spot behind the restaurant, but they did not say where she was killed.

Authorities said they re-opened the investigation twice before, in 2004 and 2011, and found male DNA on several pieces of evidence.

The Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory re-analyzed the DNA in 2016, and it was sent to a private company that specializes in using DNA to create images of what someone might look like.

The company made two composites, one showing the person at about age 25 and another at about 50 to 55.

Police said the process, called phenotyping, uses DNA to predict traits such as ancestry, hair and eye color and face shape.

Authorities made at least one of the pictures public in 2017.

But they have not said if that generated a tip that led to Whyte's arrest — only that DNA led them to him.

(CENTERVILLE, Texas) — A Texas sheriff says a reality-based detective show played a role in the recent arrest of an 84-year-old woman in the 1984 shooting death of her husband.

Leon County Sheriff Kevin Ellis said Wednesday that the arrest last week of Norma Allbritton was aided by the program "Cold Justice," which contributed its own investigator, a retired district attorney and other expertise.

The death of Johnnie Allbritton in the couple's home near Buffalo was revisited in 2015 by sheriff's investigators and some evidence was later forwarded to the program.

Buffalo is about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Dallas.

Ellis declined to say what new evidence was presented to the grand jury that indicted Norma Allbritton on a murder charge.

She bonded out of jail July 3, 2019.

A message left Wednesday for her attorney wasn't immediately returned.

In a milestone for forensic criminal investigators, a convicted killer received two life sentences on Wednesday for a 1987 double slaying after becoming the first person arrested through genetic genealogy to be found guilty at trial.

“The conviction and sentencing of William Earl Talbott II marks a new era for the use genetic genealogy for identifying violent criminals since it has now been tested and tried in a court of law,” geneology expert CeCe Moore told ABC News.

William Earl Talbott II was arrested in May 2018 and charged with aggravated murder for the Washington state cold case killings of 20-year-old Jay Cook and 18-year-old Tanya Van Cuylenborg, authorities said.

A jury found Talbott guilty last month.

"By Talbott not pleading guilty, he's put a whole new generation of people through his horror," one of Cook's sisters, Laura Baanstra, said in court Wednesday.

"Thank God Talbott is finally off the streets."

The young victims, from Canada, were traveling to Seattle by van when they were killed.

On November 24, 1987, Van Cuylenborg's partially-clothed body was found in a ditch in a wooded area, authorities said.

(LOS ANGELES, Ca.) — A tip to investigators ended a yearslong manhunt for an Orange County multimillionaire accused of killing his wife and dumping her body before fleeing to Mexico to avoid prosecution, officials said Tuesday.

Peter Chadwick, 55, a fugitive on the U.S. Marshals’ most-wanted list, was taken into custody late Sunday and arrived in California early Monday.

A photograph of a handcuffed man said to be Chadwick was taken as he arrived at Los Angeles International Airport.

Police allege Chadwick strangled and drowned his wife — 46-year-old Quee Choo Chadwick — in the bathroom of their Newport Beach home, wrapped her in a comforter from their bed and dumped her body in a trash bin in San Diego County on Oct. 10, 2012.

The couple had been fighting over a possible divorce and related financial issues, police said.

Investigators later learned that Chadwick had been unfaithful in the marriage.

When Chadwick first arrived in Mexico in 2015, he initially stayed at luxury resorts in various towns.

Eventually, those resorts began requiring identification that he couldn’t provide, authorities said, so he turned to more modest accommodations at motels and hostels.

Most recently, Chadwick had been staying at a residential duplex near Puebla, just outside Mexico City.

Last year, Newport Beach police officials released the true-crime podcast “Countdown to Capture,” and announced a reward that investigators hoped would drum up interest in the case and lead to Chadwick’s arrest.

Newport Beach Police Chief Jon Lewis said at a news conference Tuesday that the podcast, along with “good old fashioned police work” using a tip led to Chadwick’s capture.

“It’s our belief that we put pressure on Peter, which was something that we wanted to do,” Lewis said.

U.S. Marshal David Singer said sustained interest in the case made Chadwick nervous.

He moved around frequently, doing odd jobs to supplement the wad of cash he brought with him when he fled the United States, Singer said.

“When these people feel pressure, they have to keep moving and they make mistakes,” Singer said.

The probe into Quee Choo’s death initially started as a missing person’s investigation after a neighbor, who noticed the couple’s sons standing at a bus stop waiting to be picked up after school, called police to report the missing parents.

When investigators entered the home hours later, they found a decorative vase broken near the bathtub and tiny droplets of blood splattered on the bathroom wall.

The home’s safe had also been emptied, police said.

Early the next day, Chadwick called 911 from a gas station in San Diego County to report that his wife had been killed.

Chadwick claimed that someone else killed his wife and forced him to load her body into a car and drive to the U.S.-Mexico border.

He later admitted to investigators that he made up the story, authorities said.

Chadwick was released on $1 million bail shortly after his arrest in 2012 and agreed to live with his father in Santa Barbara as he awaited trial.

He surrendered his British and American passports, and showed up to hearings for two years before authorities discovered he had vanished in January 2015.

Authorities had long suspected that, even without passports, Chadwick probably had been able to leave the country.

Investigators discovered several books in his home detailing how someone could change their identity and live on the run.

Chadwick also emptied millions from his bank accounts and took cash advances on his credit cards before he disappeared, police said.

In addition, authorities discovered that Chadwick had been making test travel trips to other states, including Pennsylvania and Washington, to test the bounds of law enforcement and his court orders.

He planted items at his father’s home that Singer alleges were meant to convince investigators that he had fled to Canada instead of Mexico.

“We promised the community in 2018 when we placed Chadwick on our 15 most wanted that we would pursue and bring him back to face justice,” Singer said.

“Together with our law enforcement partners we have accomplished this and it should be an example for any fugitive on the run.”

Chadwick faces a felony count of murder in connection to his wife’s slaying.

He has pleaded not guilty.

If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in state prison.

(CORAL SPRINGS, Fl.) – A man accused of raping a Coral Springs woman has been charged 36 years after the crime occurred.

On August 22, 1983, a 24-year-old Timothy Norris found his way into the victim’s home through a rear door and raped her against her will, according to police.

At the time of the crime, authorities did not have a strong description of the suspect.

He was only described as a young white male, slender build, brown hair with strong cologne and a heavy southern accent.

Investigators did recover evidence from the scene and it was sent to the Broward Sheriff’s Office Crime lab, but Coral Springs police said the technology at the time was not able to identify a suspect and other techniques failed as well.

However, on March 14, 2019 detectives and crime scene investigators re-evaluated the evidence as part of a cold case initiative for the Coral Springs Police Department.

Using current technology at BSO’s lab, on June 27th, detectives discovered DNA on a piece of the victim’s clothing which matched Norris, according to the sheriff’s office.

Norris, now 60, is serving a federal sentence in West Virginia for armed bank robbery and has been previously arrested for armed burglary, aggravated assault, assault on a female and kidnapping.

He has been charged with sexual battery with a weapon and police have obtained an arrest warrant to bring him back to Florida.

The former boyfriend of a young mother who disappeared 27 years ago in Northern California has been arrested in connection with the cold case, authorities said.

Richard Pyle, 55, who was described by deputies as a transient, was taken into custody in Stockton on Thursday, according to a news release from the Butte County Sheriff's Office.

Pyle lived with Tracy Zandstra in November 1991, when the then-29-year-old disappeared from the home they shared in Stirling City, authorities said.

Zandstra's body was never found, but detectives have uncovered evidence indicating she had been killed and her body disposed of, sheriff's officials said.

A Sheriff's Office spokeswoman, however, declined to say what that evidence was.

"She was a mother of two young children," Megan McMann, the spokeswoman, said of Zandstra.

"We didn't think that a mother would just up and leave."

Zandstra also left behind her purse and other belongings, McMann said.

Detectives have continued to investigate the case over the years and last week worked with the district attorney's office to obtain an arrest warrant for Pyle, sheriff's officials said.

"I am proud of the persistent determination of the many detectives and investigators who have worked throughout the years to bring justice to Tracy and closure to her family," Sheriff Kory Honea said in a statement.

Pyle has been charged with murder in the Zandstra case, with enhancements for using a firearm during the commission of the crime and for prior felony convictions, court records show.

He is a registered sex offender with a prior conviction of annoying or molesting a child under 18, according to the state's Megan's Law database.

Pyle is being held at the Butte County Jail in lieu of $1-million bail and is due in court Thursday to enter a plea.

(Harrisburg, PA) - An Ohio prison inmate's writing published in biker magazines was cited by police in charging him with the shooting death of a motorist found along the Pennsylvania Turnpike in 1972, police said Friday.

Larry Joseph Via, 75, was charged with criminal homicide and robbery in the death of Morgan Peters, who had been shot in the back, following a grand jury investigation that began two years ago.

Via is serving a life sentence in the Marion Correctional Institute for a killing that occurred shortly after Peters' body was found in September 1972.

Via did not have a lawyer listed in court records who could speak for him.

No date for a court appearance was listed.

Peters, 29, a married father who lived in Bay Shore, New York, had been in Pennsylvania on a work trip.

He was seen getting onto the turnpike to go west from Carlisle toward Latrobe.

His truck was found about 18 miles (30 kilometers) from his body, and items were missing from it, including a black Panasonic radio, investigators said.

A woman who was with Via at the time, Charmaine Phillips, told investigators in August 2017 that Via told her to pull her sedan over while they were headed on the turnpike toward Cleveland.

Phillips said Via got out after a vehicle stopped behind them, according to a police affidavit.

"She said that Via was gone for a few minutes and that when he came back to her vehicle, he said, 'We gotta go!' When asked if she heard a gunshot, Phillips said that she did not," police wrote.

Phillips told police Via drove the other vehicle behind her for some distance.

At some point they separated, and she went on to Cleveland, she told police.

Phillips had told police in 2015 that she and Via had a "ruse" they would use to get people to pull over — "they would pretend to be hitchhiking to get a ride," police said.

She said that the ruse had been used more than once but that she could not remember more details.

After two ex-wives of Via's told police he wrote poems and short stories for Easy Rider magazine under the pseudonym "Jody Via," a trooper found nine writings under that name in Easy Rider and Outlaw Biker magazines from the late 1980s, police said.

"Dangerous Dave," published in Outlaw Biker in September 1985, was about a hitchhiking woman who lured a man to stop for her, and the man is then surprised by a gunman.

"As the driver approached on foot, a 'cold' voice from behind a tree told the man to stop and not 'move a muscle.' 'Dangerous Dave' then describes the shooter approaching the man and 'ready to shoot,'" the court affidavit said.

Another piece, "Payback in Full," involved a female suspect tying up a victim, similar to the shooting of gas station owner Harvey Hoffman in Geauga County, Ohio, investigators said.

One piece, "Moonlit Ride," contained a setting and facts similar to the murder of Jane Maguire in Summit County, Ohio, police said.

Via was arrested in 1972 for those two deaths and is serving life for killing Maguire.

Among his belongings when he was arrested, police said, was a black Panasonic radio.

(ROCHESTER, N.Y.) - In blue jeans and a black town of Perinton hoodie, Larry Timmons, a bespectacled and grandfatherly man with a paunch, cut an unthreatening figure as a town parks watchman.

What few people who encountered Timmons when he worked for Perinton in 2014, or in his years prior as a real estate salesman around Rochester, could know was that police in his native Missouri suspected him in several killings whose investigations had long gone cold.

On Friday, police there charged Timmons, 65, who now resides in that state, for the 1988 murder of Cynthia Smith, a 31-year-old woman whose slaying he was questioned in at the time.

Investigators there said police in neighboring Oklahoma, where Timmons lived for several years, had reopened investigations into at least two homicides, namely the 1994 murder of Timmons’ first wife, Deborah Jean Timmons, and the 1998 drowning death of an 11-year-old girl who was friends with a daughter Timmons had with Deborah Jean.

“We call him an opportunist,” said Sgt. Melissa Phillips, of the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office in southwest Missouri.

“He does not target on sex or age. He has little boys in his past. He has little girls in his past. He has women in his past.”

Locally, law enforcement officials received word earlier this year about the suspicions of Timmons' involvement in unsolved homicides, and have been investigating his time here.

The Monroe County Sheriff's Office has no unsolved homicides that Timmons would be a suspect in, and also does not have unsolved rapes in which he would be a likely suspect, said Sheriff's Office Investigator Mike Shannon.

If people have information about Timmons that they think would be of interest to law enforcement, Shannon asked that they call the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.

From his early 20s through his early 40s, a period that spanned 1976 to 1994, Lawrence Gene Timmons was linked to no less than five separate violent crimes in Missouri, despite spending seven of those years in prison or on parole.

He was charged in the kidnapping and assault of a young boy, the home invasion robbery of a female college student, and the gunpoint rape of a woman, and was questioned but never arrested in the homicides of his first wife and Smith.

Timmons was acquitted of the rape charge at trial, had his robbery conviction overturned on appeal, and was sentenced to seven years in prison for kidnapping and assault, although he served just three years before getting paroled.

Then, as a single father on the cusp of middle age, his run-ins with the law abruptly stopped.

He met a woman named Mechele Lokar, a single mother from Perinton whose stint in the Army had landed her in Oklahoma, where Timmons had settled.

They had a daughter, married, and eventually relocated to her hometown in 2006.

Once in western New York, Timmons reinvented himself. He became Larry Timmons, an everyday real estate salesman and, for a brief time, a shuttle driver for senior citizens and a parks watchman for the town of Perinton.

Timmons lived in two different Perinton locations, said Sheriff's Office Investigator Shannon.

Shannon said he sent information about Timmons to police across the state through an internal network but has not heard from any law enforcement considering him a suspect in an unsolved crime.

"We sent a flyer out to everybody in the state essentially," Shannon said Saturday.

Marty Lasher, who was a Perinton neighbor of Timmons, remembered going to Timmons' home once for a cookout.

"He just seemed like good-natured and everything, but I just felt like I’m not going to continue this," Lasher said.

“He just kind of made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. He was weird."

Gilbert Lester, the caretaker and landlord of a Whitney Road home where Timmons lived, said Timmons was quiet and easy-going.

"He paid his rent all right," Lester said.

"I had no problem at all." "Mmm-n.Hm."

The murder charge came Friday as Timmons was being held on a $250,000 bond in Lawrence County Jail in Missouri on a forgery charge for allegedly lying about his criminal past on a job application at local liquor store.

Prosecutors also alleged he falsified employment applications and used as many as 17 variations of his name, along with four Social Security numbers and six dates of birth.

The Akron Beacon Journal reports Tallmadge Police Chief Ron Williams says police began re-investigating Bentz's death in 2013 and eventually connected both slayings to Sapharas, who also faces kidnapping and attempted rape charges.

The newspaper reports Sapharas was convicted of raping a Cuyahoga Falls woman in the 1970s and was acquitted in the 1991 slaying of a Columbus woman.